HAMDEN — The final horn blared at the Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence late Easter Sunday, sealing Quinnipiac's 5-1 win over Union in the NCAA hockey East Regional final and sending the Bobcats to their first-ever Frozen Four.

The five skaters who finished the last shift of the historic game — seniors Zack Currie, Loren Barron, Kevin Bui and Russell Goodman and junior Cory Hibbeler — glided to star goaltender Eric Hartzell and huddled together on the glass to celebrate.

It took a while for the rest of the Quinnipiac bench to reach their teammates. There was no sense of urgency for the 15 other gold-clad Bobcats. None sprinted. Few whooped and hollered when they finally reached the group even as hundreds of fans at the opposite end of the rink finished their "Next stop, Pittsburgh!" chants.

Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold did little more than grin atop the bench as he shared a moment with his staff that further validated his 19-year career.

The scene illustrated an intriguing dichotomy in an incredible season: Few teams in their breakout year have ever made as much noise as the Bobcats, but their Frozen Four celebration couldn't have been more muted.

The decision to muzzle the celebration was equal parts conscious and unconscious, according to Currie, the team's captain.

"We're not done," the 25-year-old defenseman said. "We realize that it's a huge accomplishment to get to the Frozen Four, and we're ecstatic about reaching that. But we're going for the national championship. And I think the other part of it was just that we've never won that game before. So I don't think we were 100 percent sure how to react in that situation until after it kind of sunk in what we had actually accomplished."

The dismantling of their ECAC Hockey rival to set up a meeting with St. Cloud State in Thursday's Frozen Four was the greatest feat in a season filled with historic accomplishments.

Quinnipiac (29-7-5) won its first-ever ECAC Hockey regular-season title, earning it by the widest margin the conference has seen in more than 30 years. The Bobcats ripped off a national-best 21-game unbeaten streak midway through the season, helping them earn their first-ever No. 1 national ranking.

They parlayed that success into their second-ever NCAA tournament appearance and the No. 1 overall seed. Quinnipiac rallied from a 3-1 third-period deficit in the tournament opener to beat Canisius, 4-3, for the program's first NCAA tournament victory.

Entering the final period of that game trailing, 2-1, Pecknold ditched his usually calm personality to impart a sense of urgency on his team.

"I think I've only probably yelled at this team I think three times all year. That was probably the third time," Pecknold said. "Sometimes as a head coach you try to save the amount that you yell at them so you know it's going to hit home hard when you do. I was just aggressive in my tone and thought, hey, we've got a great opportunity here and we need to take advantage of it."

They did, and for a 44-minute stretch — the last 12 against Canisius and the first 32 against Union — the Bobcats outscored their opponents 8-0.

Four of those goals came from the stick of sophomore sensation Matthew Peca, who scored the first of Quinnipiac's three third-period goals against Canisius on a goal-line snipe before taking only 3 minutes, 12 seconds to net a natural hat trick in the first period against Union.

Twin brothers Connor and Kellen Jones join Peca on the Bobcats' top line. Both players tallied a goal and three assists in the regionals. Overall, it was a 13-point weekend for the line that, when it clicks like it did in Providence, is as good as any heading to Pittsburgh.

And Quinnipiac has a guy between the pipes who is among the country's best in keeping out pucks. Hartzell is one of three players still up for the Hobey Baker Award, which will be handed out Friday. The senior is among the national leaders in every statistical category and has the best goals-against average (1.55) among goalies with at least 1,500 minutes played.

Hartzell's benefitted from the nation's best defense (1.63 goals allowed per game), and the veteran unit in front of him has been better with the White Bear Lake, Minn., native in net.

"We're able to play comfortably and relaxed when we know we have Hartzell back there behind us," said Currie, one of four senior defensemen. "At the same time, we do a lot of stuff as a team that makes Eric's job easier. I think it goes both ways that we work together, and obviously we've put a lot of work in for the four years to build that relationship."

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